‘May it please your worship,’ he began. ‘Gentlemen of the jury, this is a very painful case, and one which well deserves that close and careful attention which I am sure you will bestow upon it. Fortunately the facts are few and simple. The prisoner is a grand-nephew of the late Mr. James Lindsay, who, as some of you may know, was a very wealthy man. Some time before his death, Mr. Lindsay conceived the idea of bequeathing by his will a large sum of money, no less than half a million sterling, to the religious body of which he was a member, the Free Church of Scotland. He talked over that intention with an old friend of his, the Reverend Dr. Mackenzie, of Glasgow; and (though that is not really important to the matter in hand) Dr. Mackenzie will tell you that he neither suggested this idea to Mr. Lindsay nor in any way pressed him to make this bequest. ‘Having settled in his mind the disposition which he intended to make of his property, Mr. Lindsay sent to his solicitors, asking them to call and take instructions for his will. His solicitors were Messrs. Hatchett, Small, and Hatchett, a most respectable firm; and I must tell you that the prisoner was at that time a clerk in Messrs. Hatchett’s office. Well, the solicitors sent their managing clerk, a Mr. Beattie, to take Mr. Lindsay’s instructions. We have subpœnaed this Mr. Beattie; and I have no doubt he will tell you that Mr. Lindsay distinctly informed him that the bequest to the Free Church of Scotland was to be five hundred thousand pounds. The paper on which these instructions were written by Mr. Beattie was sent to Mr. Lindsay with the draft-will, and was not returned by him. It was not found among the testator’s papers. Probably Mr. Lindsay, thinking that it was of no importance, destroyed it.’ Mr. Collithorne then went on to speak of Mr. Lindsay’s request that his nephew should personally prepare his will, and of the fact that the prisoner actually did write the draft with his own hand. ‘That fact, gentlemen,’ he continued, ‘will hardly be disputed; and if it is not admitted I will prove it to you by unimpeachable evidence. The draft itself, as well as the man who engrossed it, has disappeared. It ought to have been found with other drafts of a like nature in the prisoner’s room. It has been searched for, and cannot be found. But while it was in Mr. Lindsay’s possession, before he returned it to the solicitors to be engrossed, it was seen and read by Dr. Mackenzie, whom I shall place in the box before you. He will tell you, gentlemen, that it was in the prisoner’s handwriting, and that it contained a bequest of five hundred thousand pounds to certain trustees for the Free Church of Scotland. He will tell you that he read it most carefully, and that the sum was written both in figures and in words. The draft was sent back on the very night it arrived, Dr. Mackenzie posting it with his own hand.